Vermont Race Report and Vacation Report

I would like to quickly recap the Vermont race and vacation, and then next time delve into my training, and discuss my upcoming race. As my mileage and training time goes up, I have less time and energy to blog, even though I enjoy it. When I get behind on my writing, I feel like I am not getting to do all the the things I would like. Working 10-hour days during the summer makes it even harder to carve out some time to sit down and write. I find myself with a small amount of time so I will try to be brief and to the point. Yeah right.

The Vermont Sun triathlon was super fun. It was a great venue and turned out to be a beautiful day on race morning. As you may have read in Melissa's posting, we arrived the night before and had a somewhat mediocre dinner. The only thing I could find on the menu was a fried fish sandwich. And as the saying goes, "when in Rome," so I opted for the onion rings as a side. Not the best pre-race food but it would have to do and I was really just planning on taking it easy anyway. Yeah right. Me? Take it easy? I will take it easy when I die. That said, I had no goals other than to have a good time so there was little to no pressure.

On race morning, we were one of the first to arrive as usual. If you want a good spot on the rack, you have to get to transition early. After we got our bikes racked, Melissa and I took a little swim in the lake mostly just to see what it would be like. It was pretty warm and pretty darn shallow and clear. That would prove to make the swim a little less intimidating for the both of us.

I was in the second wave and Melissa was in the 4th wave. When the gun went off and I splashed into the water, I found myself in a bit of a jumble of swimmers. I got punched in the face by one guy but there was no damage done other than to startle me. I moved to the right side of the pack. This may not have been the most strategic move because our first turn was a left turn. But I am not the strongest swimmer and tend to breathe to my right side almost exclusively (something good triathletes DO NOT do). After we rounded the first buoy and swam for a bit, I pulled my head out of the water to survey my position. I had drifted pretty far out into the middle of the lake, definitely off course. I had to swim back towards to the buoy line. I ended up doing this a couple of times which must have tacked on another 50 yards or more. I was zig zagging all over the place.

When I got finished with the swim, my heart was pounding and I was breathing hard. I made my way to the bikes, had a fast transition, and took off. The first part of the course, once I left the parking lot, was uphill. I passed a couple of people on this hill but it took lots of effort and I was definitely not taking it easy. Soon, I was passed by a lady down on her areo bars. I kicked it up a notch to try to stay with her without getting close enough to get a drafting penalty. I ended up passing some more people and then catching and passing her on another small climb. She and I would leap frog that way for the first couple of miles until she found her rhythm and dropped me.

I kept chugging along, passing a few people and getting passed here and there by some others. Mostly I was passing versus being passed. After about half way, I relaxed and enjoyed the beauty that is Vermont. There are no billboards or strip malls in Vermont and there is pretty rolling farmland everywhere. I had a great time taking it all in while keeping my cadence high.

After the bike, I had another fast transition and took off on the 5K run. It was hilly and I was pretty spent by this time. The 600 yard lake swim was the farthest I had ever gone in a race and I think that took its toll. I felt slow on the run. I did pass some people and I did not get passed by anyone. Towards the end of the run, a person was gaining on me just as we crested the last hill before the downhill finish. I put the hammer down and ran a 6:30 pace into the finish line. After all, I could not let this person catch me at the end. Even though I did not have a specific race goal, I was not going to lie down and let someone beat me at the very end. Besides, I always have a good kick and downhill is my specialty so the nature of the course was in my favor at this point. Not that it really matters because after all this was just our vacation right?

I ended up 92 out of 199 so a top half finish overall at 1:24:31. I was 11th out of 15 in the M40-44 age group with the the following splits:

600 Yard Swim - 12:35
14 Mile Bike - 45:42
5K - 23:37

It sure was a fun day of racing in a really great venue.

The rest of our vacation was nice and relaxing. We went to Burlington and checked into a hotel where we watched the Women's World Cup Final. The game went into penalty kicks and the US really lost their composure and lost to a more technical Japan. But it was nice to sit in the AC and relax and watch the game before going down to the waterfront to take in the sights.

The next day we went to Ben and Jerry's factory for a tour and some fresh samples of ice cream. I don't typically eat any kind of dessert but I made an exception for this occasion. Needless to say, the ice cream was quite delicious. It was a small sample which is really all I needed. If you are ever up that way in Vermont, you must check it out.

After our morning stop at Ben and Jerry's we went on to the Northeast Kingdom for some relaxation, nice scenery and 100 miles of single track mountain bike trails. Just because we were on vacation did not mean that we would be couch potatoes.

On the contrary. While Monday was a rest day, on Tuesday we did 2.5 hours on the mountain bikes in the morning. After our ride together, we took a little break, had lunch and then I headed out solo to tackle some more technical trails. I made it about 15 minutes into my ride when everything literally came to a skidding halt. I knew right away that I had a major problem. A stick or a rock must have lodged in my rear wheel or derailleur. As it turns out, it was more than a major problem. My bike was rendered useless. In fact, it would not roll at all. So I did what I had to do and hoisted my bike onto my back and walked about 2.5 miles back to the trailhead. Uphill of course. Luckily, I was able to use my phone to send Melissa a message to meet me with the car so I did not have to walk the additional 2 miles back to our room where I started my ride.




We took the bike to the local shop and after discussing some things with the mechanic decided not to get it fixed but rather rent a hard tail 29er. I got a 3-day rental starting the next day plus daily insurance for only $85. Not too shabby at all.

After we got back from the bike store, I went out on my road bike to do my 2 X [9 z4 +3 Z5] w/5m RI. Basically I rode down to the bottom of the hill on Darling Hill Road and then crunched up the hill for 9 minutes hard and then 3 minutes all-out. Lather, rinse, repeat. I nailed the workout and my heart rate was flying.

Again, since I can rest when I die, after all that, we both entered a local 5 K trail race. After all, we could see the start from our room so why not? It was only $5 a person. It was low key with about 20 runners total. Some of them would be doing one loop which was about 1.5 miles and some would be doing two loops. At the beginning of the race, these two college runners who were running the 1.5 mile loop took off fast and I took off with them. I stayed with them for a few minutes but they were running a sub 6 pace down the hill. I let them go but now found myself in the lead since they were only doing the one loop and I was doing the two. During my second loop, I noticed a guy who was starting to gain on me. I could not let this happen as this could be my one and only chance to win a race. I was probably about 25 to 50 yards in front of him. I decided to put the hammer down after I went around a turn. That way, when he went around the turn and did not see me, I would have a psychological advantage. It is always easier to chase someone when you can see them. Now, he would not know what happened to me. Plus, after I climbed the hills again and I knew it was mostly downhill from there, I really opened it up. There was no fanfare, and not prizes. Nor really an acknowledgement that I had won. But I knew. And the guy who "almost" caught up to me? He asked me after the race if I ran the second loop faster or what. He said that he stopped briefly to tie his shoe and when he looked up, I had vanished. I told him that I usually start out too fast, falter in the middle, and then pick it up at the end. It was surely a great finish to a lovely day of exercise.

Summarizing the rest of our week, on Wednesday, we rode for 3.5 hours. Thursday we did about 40 minutes of swimming in a lake. Friday we rode for 2 hours and 45 minutes and did a 30-minute trail run. In between, we ate a lot and read, and walked around the grounds of the Inn. Unfortunately our room did not have AC so we ended up pretty hot at night and did not get the sleep we needed. So by the end of the week, I was ready to head home. It was a little bit of a downer, not being able to sleep well due to the heat. If we ever go back, we will make sure to get a room with an AC unit like we had last year.

Here are some photos from the trip.

A Good Idea Is Sometimes Stellar

Please sit back, relax, make yourself comfortable for the wit of my guest blogger. Today's race report comes from none other than my partner in crime. Please enjoy something different this time around. Comments are welcome and encouraged. Without further ado, I present the musings of Melissa Rosen:

Sometimes, I have good ideas. These ideas usually come in the form of something small, as in, “I think I'll have a piece of chocolate”, or, “I'm gonna wear jeans today.” Sometimes my ideas occur to me as a matter of course. But mostly, any good idea I ever have enters my brain after much thought and trepidation. After painstaking research and fact checking. After a good night's sleep.

But this time around, my obvious better half had a good idea. His idea: “Let's go to Vermont again for vacation.” Now I must say, this is as good as ideas get. We had gone to East Burke, VT last year, to enjoy a vacation on the beautiful mountain bike single track of the Kingdom Trails Organization. Sporting over 100 miles of single track, plus some wider trails and downhill, the Kingdom Trails has something for everyone, even a beginner like me. But as much as I enjoyed it last year, I kept thinking-- “Do I want 7 days of mountain biking again? I mean, it was fun and all, but. . .”. I kept thinking there ought to be more we could do. And then it occurred to me (undoubtedly after that good night's sleep I mentioned): let's do a Tri while we're in Vermont! Now that would be FUN! Now that's a good idea!

And so, after what amounted to only a small amount of research, I located some triathlon options that we could build our vacation around, and sent an email off to Jim telling him of my good idea. And you know what? He thought it was a good idea too. So, lickety split, we chose to do the Vermont Sun Triathlon held in Branbury State Park: 600 yard swim, 14 mile bike, 5k run.

I've been training for my triathlons this season with what I admit is a bit of an ad hoc approach. January through March I had pushed my training for the Monument 10k pretty hard, and having achieved my goal there (broke an hour for the first time, hooray!), I must say I've found it hard to return to my training regimen with the same intensity. I have been very consistent in the frequency and amount of training I've been doing, but I just can't seem to get to the same level of intensity that I had for the first 12 weeks of the year. Still, I've managed to average a run 2 -3 times a week, swim 2x a week, and bike 2x a week. I work in doubles sometimes, and also some brick workouts because I need to get used to running off the bike (and the initial cramping that comes with it).

We arrived at our motel in Brandon, VT the evening before the race, and had dinner at a local restaurant. We could not have our usual pre-race meal of salmon, greens and potatoes, so we had to settle for what they offered. I ordered the Fisherman's Pasta, and although it was tasty, I was surprised to find bacon in it. The last time I checked (and I check regularly because you never know what creepy weird things are crawling about in the water), pigs don't swim. So, I don't know where the swimming pigs are coming from, or what fishermen are catching them, but apparently they are not smart enough to ignore a worm on a hook. The food was ok, but I kept wondering how it was going to make me feel the next day, and hoped it wouldn't decide to lurch about in my stomach all night. Luckily, that did not happen.

Sunday morning came, and I was more than happy to get up at such an early hour, since I did not sleep too well in the strange and somewhat uncomfortable motel bed. Triathlons usually start early, but this one actually started an hour later than I am used to, so that was nice. Getting to the race site early has the advantage of picking a good spot on the bike rack in transition. It is convenient to be on the end so that when you run into transition, it is easy to find your stuff. And to all those who are better, faster, and more experienced than me, I say-- get there early if you want the end spot, cause if I'm there first, I'm gonna take it. So there. HA!

The race started knee-deep in the lake. It turns out that my wave was last, Women 40+. We waded in and the water was warm- had to be at least 76 degrees. My goals for the race were framed rather loosely, and as this is only my third triathlon ever, I am fine with that for now. My goals were:

1. Finish the 14 mile bike in under an hour.

2. Finish the entire tri in under 2 hours.

3. Shoot for a 30 minute run.

4. Don't be dead last overall.

5. Don't be last in my age group.

And as I looked around me at the starting line, I added one:

6. Don't be last out of the water.

As I waited for the gun to go off, I was nervous. I'd never swum this far in a lake before, and it is quite different than swimming in the pool. In the pool, you have a wall to push off of every 25 meters, and the security of knowing that the wall and bottom aren't far away.

Well, the gun went off, and off I went. Into the fray, trying to hold back but not really succeeding. As was typical, I went out too fast and about 5 minutes into the race, I was breathing harder than I should have been. I kept telling myself, “This is only 600 yards. Seriously. Not hard. Not far. You can do this.”

I kept getting a bit off track, since my sighting isn't very good (the practice of looking where you're going while you swim, ideally without disrupting your form). First I was next to the buoy line. Then to the far right of it. Then a bit to the left of it (oops). Then next to it. Then too far right again. Ugh! As other swimmers pulled away from me, I reminded myself that I should try to enjoy the experience at least a little. I mean after all, wasn't I on vacation? I needed to use the side stroke here and there to catch my breath, and at some point I must have got it together a bit because before I realized it, I was heading toward the last buoy. As I passed the final buoy, I was surprised to see a photographer in the water taking pictures of the athletes as they came around the “corner”. All I could think was, “That better not be Mr. DeMille, because I am truly not ready for my close-up”. Not even a little bit.

I swam into shore and as my hands hit the sandy bottom, I swam a few more strokes and then up I went, ran into transition, and did not look back. Was I last out of the water? I wouldn't know that for sure until much later, when I examined the race results. I was pretty sure there was at least one person behind me and at the time, even though I was really curious, I preferred to remain oblivious to it. I could have easily looked around the transition area to see how many bikes were still there, but that would have only gotten in the way of what I needed to do. Besides, it is counter to a racing mantra I like to adhere to: Run Your Own Race. Sure, my goal might have been to not be last,but I wasn't going to let that thought dominate my mind to the point of distraction. I find Run Your Own Race to be a good Life mantra as well. After all, we've all got to find our own pace in life. We might have some false starts, we might go out too fast, blow out our quads running downhill-- but ultimately we've got to find our racing groove and get in it. Only then can we be our best.

I won't bore you with too many other details, as the hilly 14-mile bike ride, as beautiful as it was (“Am I really on vacation? This is awesome!”) is a bit of a blur to me. It started out on a hill, which for me is not good. But once I found my pace, I passed a few people, including two riders who were struggling up the steep 1-mile hill at mile 10. Passing a sign that said “Camp Cupcake” gave me a chuckle early on, too. Must've been a camp for kids, but all I could think was “ I don't see any cupcakes on this course.” And I don't mean the sweet sugary kind either.

As I've found with the first two triathlons I did, the run ends up being the hardest. It didn't help that the out and back course started on an uphill. And then kept going uphill (mostly) until the turnaround. I had some calf cramps for the first few minutes of my run, so I just kept going since I know from my training they will go away if I just push through. Same with my stomach. If it starts to feel queasy or sloshy (from ingesting liquids), I know that feeling will go away If I can just ignore it. Plus, a 5k isn't that long, so I just tell myself that it will be over soon and I just need to GO. I passed a few folks on the run course (one of them over 70-- I was impressed!), and the downhill helped me pick up speed. I had glanced at my watch when I took off, so I knew I wasn't going to make the 30 minute goal I set, but really, at that point it didn't matter.

As I came to the bottom of the hill and entered the park, I noticed that most of the spectators had cleared out. Ah well, that's how I know I am near the back of the pack. I always manage to have a little kick at the end, though I'm not sure where it comes from-- sometimes during a race, I try to hit the gas pedal but there doesn't seem to be any gas in the tank. So where was it all this time? In the reserve tank? As I neared the finish line, I saw the only spectator that mattered-- there was Jim, cheering me on! Yay! Seeing him always puts a smile on my face and as he high-fived me, I sprinted to the end. Panting, and walking in circles as I tried to catch my breath, I was elated to be finished and felt such a great feeling of satisfaction. Was doing this triathlon good idea? Yes. In fact, it was stellar.

How my goals stacked up:

1. Finish the 14 mile bike in under an hour - check

I finished the bike leg in 58:17

2. Finish the entire tri in under 2 hours - check

   Total finish time: 1:49:53

3. Shoot for a 30 minute run

   Total run time: 33:28

4. Don't be dead last overall - check

   I placed 181 out of 199

5. Don't be last in my age group – check

   I placed 17^th out of 19 women 40-44

6. Don't be last out of the water – check

   There were 3 women who exited the water after me. I completed the swim in 15:01.

   
   

   

   
   

Vermont Trip-Part 3

On Tuesday morning, we got up early and headed down for our breakfast. I usually don't eat all that much for breakfast. In fact, I usually have a banana, a yogurt (with no HFCS of course), and a granola bar. However, I was getting used to having a big breakfast already. You can't beat fresh cut fruit, fresh granola mixed in yogurt and blueberry pancakes.

After breakfast we drove about 45 minutes to a place where we rented two kayaks for our float trip on the Clyde river. The float trip was part of our pedal and paddle package and consisted of a lazy kayak trip down a very calm river. In fact, it was really more like a big stream rather than a river. We took our time and slowly kayaked down the river. The water was kind of low and there were some fallen trees that we had to maneuver around carefully. But we managed to stay dry for the whole trip. It was very quiet at times and we felt like we were out in the middle of nowhere. Floating down a river can be very peaceful and a great way to see wildlife. We did not see much on this trip until the very end when we saw some loons on the lake that the river dumped into. It was neat because at first we thought they were strange looking ducks. It was not until later when we past by their nesting areas that we saw the signs and realized what we had seen.

Here are a couple of pictures from the float trip.

After our float trip, we had a light lunch at the restaurant at the Inn and then got cleaned up and ready for our first afternoon at the spa. Melissa had the 90 minute hot stone massage while I had the traditional 60 minute full body massage. My massage was pretty good. I give the masseuse an A. He really opened up my tight areas including my legs which still don't have full range of motion.

After our massages, we had another wonderful dinner at the Inn followed by some leisurely walks around the area. We scoped out some of the trail heads on the other side of the road and watched the sun go down from on top of the hill overlooking the Inn. Below you can see a couple of photos from our walk. In one picture, you can see the Church that we came across the day before on our bikes. We tried to do one of those silly pictures like people do with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It did not quite turn out but it is still a neat view.

On Wednesday morning, Melissa took a break from riding and decided to chill out and also go for a swim while I went on a ride on my own. I started out across the street on "Bob Magill" and did a whole bunch of trails including some good climbs. I was taking the opportunity to really push myself and do as much climbing as possible. In fact, I ended up riding lots of what Melissa and I did the other day except in the reverse direction so that I did lots of climbing, some of it pretty steep.

After my ride, we had lunch and chilled out for a while before heading back out on the bikes for another afternoon ride. The weather was perfect again. We did some nice trails with some technical climbs and tricky descents. We took our time and picked our way over the roots carefully. Again, Melissa did really great. These trails were more challenging than anything else we had ridden in Richmond and Melissa really stepped up to the challenge.

Again, after our ride, we dinned on fresh and yummy food followed by another walk around the area. I was really getting used to leisurely walks through the pastures after dinner rather than watching TV. It got me thinking about getting rid of our FIOS TV and just getting free broadcast television. That is another topic for another day and is a project I am working on.

Thursday morning I went on another solo ride while Melissa took a break from riding. She did some site seeing around the area, visiting a nearby village and then we had lunch followed by our second afternoon of spa treatments. This time, Melissa had foot reflexology which I would later find out was a bust as her therapist really did not know what she was doing in the feet department. My treatment on the other hand was excellent. I had neuromuscular therapy which turned out to be so good that I am going to see if there are any other people in our area trained in that particular discipline. The therapist was able to find all my problem areas and release the tension that I did not even know I was carrying. At one point I had mentioned that my ankles have always been tight from a lifetime of soccer. She had me on my stomach holding my ankle with my knee bent back towards my rear. She pressed with her other hand on a particular place on my hip and I could feel my ankle release all this tension and loosen up. It was amazing. If I could afford it, I would go once a week to someone with this skill. But alas, my money tree that I planted in the back yard has yet to be fruitful.

Can you guess what we did on Friday? More mountain biking of course. Melissa and I did a shorter ride in the morning and then I went on one last epic ride. The lady at the Kingdom Trails association gave me some routes that would prove to be challenging. When I told her what I had ridden thus far and how I had ridden it all up hill, she pointed me in the direction of a trail called Burnham Down. Of course instead of doing what she suggested, I front loaded the ride with a bunch of other trails and climbs just to maximize the workout. When I got to the Burnham Down trail which was a double-black diamond trail, I noticed the trail sign said Burnham Up. So there was a little sense of humor here. The climb was long and challenging but lots of fun too. There were all kinds of neat obstacles, bridge work, holes, roots, and hills. It was long but the payoff in the end was a very long downhill on Moose Alley and then some great riding through some meadows and fields of corn. It was a truly epic ride and a great way to end the week. Below are a few pictures I took along the way.

After all that riding, we went back to the River Garden for dinner and had some more delicious food. We went with the specials again and were not disappointed. It was all so very good.

After dinner we walked around a little again before starting to get packed up and prepared for our early morning departure. On Saturday, we bugged out after breakfast and headed south towards Philly where we would be staying the night again at Melissa's sister's house. We had a pleasant drive through Vermont but when we hit NY, we picked up a fair amount of traffic. Back to reality it seems. But we made good time and got to the Redilla's house in time for dinner and had a nice evening visiting. We even showed them some of our pictures on their Wii. We were pretty tired and still had another 5 hours to drive the next day so after picture and tv we went to bed and slept quite well.

On Sunday, we took off early in the morning and had a relatively uneventful trip back. In fact we were making really excellent time until we rounded the DC beltway to get on I95 south. This is what we faced.

Finally after about an hour in bumper to bumper traffic, it let up and we made it home without any more hiccups.

All in all, the trip was superb and it got us thinking about a summer home in Vermont. We will have to wait for the money tree to sprout but maybe someday.

Finally, I wanted to include a link to this video from the Kingdom Trails website that gives you some idea of where we were and the trails that we got to ride.

Vermont Trip-Part 2

As I mentioned, we arrived early at the Wildflower Inn well before check-in. We had just spent a rather rainy night in the tent and then driven a couple of hours and were anxious to get cleaned up and settled in. The person at the front desk at the Wildflower Inn took our name and cell phone number and said she would alert the cleaning staff to give our room a priority so we could check in as soon as possible and that she would call us if the room was ready early.

We headed into East Burke a couple of miles away and went to check out the Kingdom Trails Association office where we could get our maps and passes to ride the mountain bike trails in the area. We did not get a pass but did get some maps. We also asked the bike dude working in the office there where we could get a relatively economical lunch. He told us of a place about a block away which we could walk to. We ordered our sandwiches and just as we started eating, the Wildflower Inn called and our room was ready. It was only about noon so we were really lucky.

After lunch we went back and checked into our room which was really nice. It had a great view of the meadows and mountains. There was a nice queen size bed and a little kitchen area complete with stove, sink, microwave, fridge, cookware, real plates and real silverware. If we wanted to shop and cook a little, we could easily do that to save a little money during the week. We did not end up doing that but we did use the microwave a couple of days to heat up some dinner leftovers. The option to cook was there but who wants to cook on vacation? Not us. Below are a couple of pictures showing the view from our balcony and from the bathroom window. (Please note, if you click on a picture it will open up bigger and then you can click Back to get back to the Blog).

We spend the rest of the day getting cleaned up and settled in. We checked out the whole area around the Inn including taking a look at the cows, checking out the sauna and pool and just walking around enjoying the cool weather. It seemed cool to us compared to Richmond where it was over 100 degrees and very humid. Below are a few pictures of the area around the Inn.

Before you knew it, we had to think about dinner. We made reservations for the River Garden in East Burke. The restaurant ended up being superb. The food was so fresh and delicious and plentiful. One thing that struck me as we were in town for dinner was all the bikes and cars with bike racks. They were everywhere. We were in a mountain bike haven. We were staying right in the middle of some of the best mountain biking trails on the East Coast and it was exciting to be there with so much time to ride and also relax and of course not work. Here are a few pictures of the restaurant.

After dinner we walked around and checked out some of the trail heads. All of the trails are marked with a red sign with black lettering and a symbol that indicates the difficulty of the trails. The trail difficulty varied from a green circle which was easy to a blue square which was harder to the black diamond which was for experts. There were also some double black diamond trails as well as some triple black diamond trails. Below are some pictures of the trail heads signs that label the trails. Did I mention that there are over 100 miles of trails? Here are just a few of the signs that we encountered during the week.

As Sunday drew to a close, I was feeling quite relaxed and definitely in vacation mode. With no television in the room, we read our magazines, looked at the maps and planned our week. We really only had a few things on the schedule. We had a three hour kayak trip that was part of our paddle and pedal package as well as two afternoon spa treatments just down the road at the spa. Other than that, we had not really planned anything other than biking, eating, and relaxing.

Monday morning we got up and waltzed our way down to breakfast which was included in our package. We had fresh cut fruit and granola mixed with yogurt from the cold bar and ordered eggs and/or pancakes. Each morning we had the fruit, yogurt, and granola and whatever the special was for that day or we just stuck with blueberry pancakes. After our Monday breakfast we went down to the Kingdom Trails Association headquarters and bought our day passes and got some suggested routes to take.

After we drove back to our room and got saddled up, we headed out the door. The trails were really excellent. We went through some rolling meadows before ducking into the woods. The trails were well marked and they had a really excellent flow. We ended up riding for about 2 hours before breaking for lunch back at the Inn and then a 1 hour nap and then back out to the trails to ride for another 2 hours. Melissa really did well. The trails were somewhat technical and there were some climbs that I am pretty sure were longer than anything she has ever done before. She rode them all like a champ. I am really proud of her. We had such a nice time out there and got a super workout. Below are some pictures from the chapel that we encountered towards the tail end of our Monday afternoon ride as well as few other pictures from the trail.

After our ride we had dinner at the Wildflower Inn which was also really excellent. I felt like I ate so much. In fact, that seemed to be the trend for the whole week. Bigger than usual breakfast, a decent size lunch, and a huge dinner. I thought for sure that when I got back to Richmond, I would find that I had gained weight. In actuality when I did get back and weigh myself, I had lost a pound or two. Not to give anything away but I did end up riding over 17 hours total. More on that later.

Well that about wraps up our first few days in Vermont. I think next time I can wrap it up in one file segment. I hope you enjoy the pictures. More on Vermont to come.